1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems for planning and more particularly to a system that includes a relational database that produces bill-of-materials from planning information.
2. Description of the Related Art
High tech products require the development of complicated bill-of-material (BOM) structures to support manufacturing stocking and build options. High tech industries typically use a product manager tool in a manual process to create and release BOMs and put some pieces of information in multiple parts of the BOM structures. This manual process is very error prone and provides many situations where the information is not updated in all locations, which may cause products to be built incorrectly. Further, the current process is very labor intensive and product sometimes need to wait until the BOM structures are reviewed before manufacturing begins. Separate software tools are often used to perform part of ordering, such as mask ordering.
In the semiconductor industry mask ordering and the preparation of the graphical data used to make masks are separate and usually manual or semi-automated activities. Newer technologies require much more extensive graphical data preparation. If the data preparation and mask build are not completely integrated, defective products will be produced. Currently, in the semiconductor industry, large amounts of resource are invested in checking and rechecking data prep and mask orders to ensure they match.
In addition, businesses typically run financial plans in different systems than those used to support tactical execution in systems, such as the systems used to create BOMs. For high technology parts, this results in differences in execution that could be related to changes in product description, changes in volume demand, or changes in manufacturing. When implementing complex high part number products, it is almost impossible to separate out the cause of the problem. Accountability of the business management team is difficult to establish because the productivity of the teams cannot easily be measured. Therefore, there is a need for a system that can automatically identify the bill-of-materials from a customer""s description (e.g., from the customer""s perspective).
In view of the foregoing and other problems, disadvantages, and drawbacks of the conventional systems the present invention has been devised, and is an object of the present invention to provide a system that includes a relational database that produces bill-of-materials from planning information.
In order to attain the object(s) suggested above, there is provided, according to one aspect of the invention a method of forecasting financial obligations for all aspects of manufacturing semiconductor chips including mask manufacturing. The invention prepares a relational database of part numbers that describes all information that allows the planning and build of all manufacturing subassemblies needed to produce an end semiconductor (or any product) and provides interlock with design protocols to automatically define the development and manufacturing processes needed to create this product. Individual processes performed include processing a mask order through the relational database to output part numbers, predicting the cost of the mask, predicting the cost of the product, and altering the sourcing of the product with changes to the mask design. The overall system provides the capability to plan capacity for manufacturing sub-components before the components are developed, early ordering for sub-components that exist, interlock of manufacturing and development processes, and a seamless process where the description of the undeveloped product can be altered and the impact on the released and unreleased sub-components can be seen instantly. When a decision is made to proceed to manufacturing, the data in the conceptual bill-of-material can be frozen and moved automatically to the system used to store records used by manufacturing and to the customer and manufacturing ordering systems.
More specifically, the invention provides a system for processing orders for products. The system includes a relational database that stores part numbers, a manufacturing planning engine operatively connected to the relational database, and a customer engagement tool operatively connected to the relational database. The part numbers correspond to parts used to manufacture the products. The part numbers are associated, in the relational database, with information needed to manufacture the parts. The relational database is adapted to automatically produce at least one bill-of-material for at least one part based on a customer description of a product. The manufacturing planning engine is adapted to initiate at least one manufacturing order using the bill-of-material. The customer engagement tool is adapted to provide information regarding price and delivery dates of the product based on the information within the relational database.
The information needed to manufacture the part includes the subassemblies needed to manufacture the part, cost of manufacturing the part, sources of the part, time necessary to manufacture the part, and/or availability of the part. The invention also includes a demand forecast tool operatively connected to the relational database. The demand forecast tool is adapted to automatically revise the manufacturing order based on changes in demand for the product.
The manufacturing planning engine is further adapted to place the manufacturing order even before a design of the product is completed. The manufacturing planning engine is further adapted to reserve manufacturing capacity for the part based on the information within the relational database. The bill-of-material includes tools needed to manufacture the part, detailed measurements of the part, and/or structures needed in the part.
Thus, the relational database tool receives the customer deliverable order, the product manager tool obtains a block of part numbers from unallocated part numbers and supplies the block of part number to the relation database, and the relational database tool automatically prepares a bill-of-materials to satisfy the customer deliverable order using part numbers from the block of part numbers. The product manager tool changes manufacturing capacity by obtaining of the block of part numbers and a customer engagement tool forecasts the cost of, and delivery date for the product based on the bill-of-materials and the manufacturing capacity. The manufacturing planning engine allocates capacity for the product based on the bill-of-material and the relational database revises the bill-of-materials as the designing of the product progresses. A manufacture driving tool begin manufacturing of sub-components for the product even before the design of the product is completed. The invention also includes an add/obsolete tool that automatically deletes unneeded part numbers from the relational database tool.
The invention also includes a data preparation engine operatively connected to the relational database. The data preparation engine is adapted to automatically prepare graphical data needed to manufacture the product based on the information within the relational database. Thus, the invention automatically produces bill-of-materials for a semiconductor mask to satisfy a customer deliverable order. The relational database tool receives the customer deliverable order, the product manager tool obtains a block of mask part numbers from unallocated mask part numbers to satisfy the customer deliverable order, and the data preparation tool automatically provides prepared graphical data for the mask to the relational database tool. The relational database tool automatically prepares the bill-of-materials to satisfy the customer deliverable order using the prepared graphical data and part numbers from the block of part numbers. The prepared graphical data includes the type and location of pellicle, size of the mask, thickness of the mask, compensation needed in the mask to accommodate wafer and mask manufacturing needs, structures needed to use the mask to make the product, structures needed to control manufacturing of the product, etc. The relational database tool identifies data preparation protocols to permit the data preparation tool to produce the prepared graphical data. Each sub-component of the mask has an associated data preparation protocol. The relational database identifies the data preparation protocols automatically based on the customer order deliverable. The product manager tool obtaining the block of part numbers changes the mask manufacturing capacity and the customer engagement tool forecasts a cost of, and delivery date for the mask based on the bill-of-materials and the mask manufacturing capacity.
In addition, the invention also provides a method for processing orders for products. The method includes the steps of preparing a relational database of part numbers, automatically producing at least one bill-of-material to manufacture at least one part based on a customer description of a product using the relational database, and providing information regarding price and delivery dates of the product based on the information within the relational database. The part numbers correspond to parts used to manufacture the products and the part numbers are associated, in the relational database, with information needed to manufacture the parts.
The process of preparing the relational database includes providing the subassemblies needed to manufacture the part, cost of manufacturing the part, sources of the part, time necessary to manufacture the part, and/or availability of the part, as the information needed to manufacture the part. The method also automatically places a manufacturing order for the part based on the information within the relational database and automatically revises the manufacturing order based on changes in demand for the product. The invention additionally can place the manufacturing order even before a design of the product is completed. The invention can reserve manufacturing capacity for the part based on the information within the relational database.
The producing of the bill-of-material includes identifying the tools needed to manufacture the part, detailed measurements of the part, and structures needed in the part, based on the information within the relational database. The invention can also automatically prepare graphical data needed to manufacture the part based on the information within the relational database.